Then and now as usual;
The $17 line was quite important, if you got above it things could be alright, if you did not than things were looking decidedly ugly. Remember that these are the juniors, not the ABXs of the gold world. Looking at the chart $7 is a realistic possibility. Some of these companies have a problem even paying their listing fees. According to some in the know, about 1/2 of them will become extinct in the next few years. This is not altogether that surprising. Initially they spend all there money drilling holes all over the place in order to create some transparency with respect to what is actually there. Even if that goes well the next step is usually of a completely different magnitude, instead of 10/20 mln. you may be talking 50/100 mln. and upwards. For each geologist these companies often employ an equal number of financial types that are experts at extracting money from investors. But the mood has to be right and that does not appear to be the case now.